Kamen Rider: New World War
by Eyeshield
Summary: The Rider War granted one wish, free of consequences, to the winner of the brutal contest. That wasn't entirely true. While our would never remember the War, the aftermath would unfold and would forever be remembered in another. Welcome to the World of Remnant... Kamen Riders.


_Hello everyone. I seem to have come back after… well, some amount of time. Will I ever update anything else. GOD I HOPE SO._

_I seem to keep having these great ideas enter my head for whatever bloody reason, but I CAN'T WRITE THEM. I seized this idea like a drowning man before it left my head, so here it is. _

_Kamen Rider Ryuki and RWBY. I'm… I'm not even sure if this'll be a one-shot or not, but here it is folks: A crossover between these two._

_Have fun!_

_*The properties seen here are not owned by me, only the plot*_

_START_

In a forest of falling leaves, at the base of a tree, a man slept through the quiet fall.

"Ughhh…" the man groaned, blinking groggily as he opened his eyes. He was tired, painfully so, his back aching in agony and forbidding him from standing up.

All he could do though, was open his eyes, raise his head, and wake up.

"Itete… What happened?"he winced, trying to gather himself. His eyes slightly widened as he took in his surroundings.

Forever Fall. A land in eternal autumn, the crimson leaves falling from the trees as the sun's light shined through in the sky.

"Oyy… Where am I? How did I get here?" He said to himself as he tried to stand. The man struggled to remember what happened, and his eyes widened as a distinct possibility entered his mind.

"Am I… Am I dead?" he thought to himself. An odd thought to have, but it made sense from his perspective. Such scenery was definitely reminiscent of death, the endless falling of leaves, and he did remember the last thing that happened before he got here.

A pain wracking his entire body. His back lying against the car. Looking into the eyes of his greatest friend, wishing him onward as his strength left him.

He smiled at the thought. "Yeah… If it's him, he can do it. I guess I can rest here..."

And so it was that Shinji Kido, a man who lived to protect others, decided to go to sleep.

That was the plan of course. See, Forever Fall WAS a beautiful place, but strangely, tourism wasn't very high here. That might be because it was filled with wildlife that would like nothing more than to tear the flesh of your skin.

Case in point, the sudden appearance of a giant bear that shoved itself in Shinji's face.

Shinji took one, horrified look at the sight in front of him, and screamed.

"I TAKE THAT BACK!"

Meanwhile, somewhere else, in a (relatively), more relaxed part of the forest, four girls were trekking through the flora. One in particular was ahead of the pack, carrying with her an unusual weapon of a giant scythe.

"C'mon guys, get a move on! I wanna get this done before lunch! I like a good weekend as much as anybody, ya know?"

The girl's cheerful tone annoyed one of her companions, clothed almost completely in white and carrying a similarly colored sword. "Ruby, I want this done as much as you, but keep your guard up!"

"There, there you two," another one of the girls, golden-haired and with revealing clothes, spoke up. "We'll get this done either way! A few Grimm won't be a problem for the four of us!"

"To be fair, it STILL wouldn't hurt to be careful," the last of the girls, clothed in black and white and with a black ribbon on her head, pointed out.

"Yes, I know…" Ruby grunted in frustration. "Well, we have our job, so let's hunt some Grimm for the villagers and be back before lunch!"

"Of course…" Weiss replied with a groan. "Just hope that what happened with Jaune last time won't happen… I don't want to be helping anybody being attacked by an Ursa Major AGAIN…"

Just then, the girls heard the screams of a certain man, along with a roar that sounded just like a bear.

As one, all the girls turned to Weiss and stared at her, causing her to grit her teeth in frustration. "Oh come on!"

Blake sighed and turned towards the source of the noise. "Just had to open your mouth didn't you…"

Yang saw the look in her sister's eyes and reached out her hand far too late. "Ruby!"

But she was already gone, a storm of rose petals the only thing left in her wake.

"Dammit Ruby, you won't help anybody if you die first!" Weiss screamed in frustration.

"That's sis alright… Annoying in all the right ways," Yang said with a sigh.

"Let's just go after her. I don't want anyone being chased after that thing to be a pile of meat!" Blake declared, her voice tense.

All three took out their weapons and tried their best to catch up to their leader and hopefully, to the poor soul she was trying to save.

"Heaven sucks!"

Shinji was not having a good awakening. Right after that first bear came out, another one decided to join it. He was now running madly away from them, sweating profusely in his mad dash to lose them.

"Oh shit!" He tripped on a branch and was sent rolling, landing in exactly the same position he was in a lifetime ago: His back leaning towards a tree, his chest heaving and fear covering him.

"Is… Is this hell? Are these things just demons meant to torment me for eternity?"

His mind almost froze at that. Eternal suffering. It was a terrifying thought…

But maybe he deserved it. Memories of the Rider War, his dirtied hands, and all those he failed to save…

"… Yeah. Maybe this is right." He looked towards the bears, resigning himself to his fate. "Do your worst… I deserve every bit of it."

The bears didn't understand what he said, and they never needed to. For one, they would've torn him to pieces either way.

For another, they never had the chance.

A storm of rose petals covered the already crimson forest, and from it came death. In but a moment the bear's head was sliced off from its neck before it could reach Shinji, flipping and landing far away from him.

He found out why soon enough.

She looked younger than him, far too young to have so easily decapitated a living creature. Her hair was brown, a short bob that ended on her neck. Red and black clothes covered his vision, and a crimson cape flowed behind her back.

"Hey… Are you OK?"

He heard the words, but he couldn't make his own. He simply stared in speechless awe at the sight before him.

"Okaaay… You just stay there. I'll be done in a minute."

With that, she bounded off towards the bear. Instead of just slicing its head off however, the girl somersaulted over. Unbelievably, her gigantic weapon shifted its form to that of a huge gun, and with it she sniped the bear while she arced over it. The momentum of the shot simultaneously hurt her target immensely, causing it to roar, and propelled her several feet higher. She shifted her weapon back to scythe form and somehow her scythe fired yet another bullet. A storm of petals accompanied her fall as she rocketed down to finish.

The cut was clean and swift. Were that mad creature capable of feeling anything, it still wouldn't have realized the moment it died.

Its head landed cleanly on the far side of the clearing at the same time she did, and she calmly stood up and exhaled a calming breath.

Shinji didn't even take one during the whole exchange. He was absolutely mesmerized by the scene.

Surrounded by a storm of petals and holding her scythe gracefully, the girl in front of him really did look like an angel of death.

Ruby sighed in relief at the successful (and in her mind _completely awesome!_) rescue. She was thankful she dashed off fast enough to save the guy under the tree. An Ursa Major was about to snack on his face! Maybe that's why he couldn't talk or say anything, must've gone catatonic…

She thought these things as she walked up to the poor guy, but couldn't help but be disturbed when he continued staring at her. "Uhh… You OK there buddy? I know, I know, seeing an Ursa stare at you straight in the face is pretty scary but…"

"SHINIGAMI!"

"GAH!"

Ruby was startled by the man's sudden outburst, and also very confused about his enthusiasm. "You're a shinigami, aren't you?! Here to judge my sins to see whether I go to heaven or hell, right?!"

"Whaaa…?"

"Of course! This is an autumn place! End of your life, beginning a new one! Oh I should've known this was purgatory!" The man dropped his head onto the ground, kneeling before Ruby and confusing her even more. "Thank you for saving from those demons, Ms. Death God! I know that I've tried my best to live a good life, but I submit myself to your judgement!"

Ruby stared at the man she rescued, utter confusion in her eyes. _… Yyeaaah… That guy needs help. A lot of help._

"Ruby!"

Ruby turned around to see the rest of her team dashing towards her hurriedly. "Oh, hey girls! Uh… As you can see our victim here is perfectly fine!"

The man looked up from his position and stared at the new arrivals. "Ooh, more of us! Don't worry, we're totally safe from eternal damnation now."

The rest of team RWBY stared at their leader at that, and Ruby whispered to her teammates. "He thinks that he's dead… And that I'm a Death God. I'm not _completely_ sure I got here in time…" She then sagged her shoulders in despair. "But come on… why would he think that? Completely ignoring the fact that he thinks he's dead, do I really look ANYTHING like some creepy ghost of death?"

As one, all three girls looked at the clearing of beheaded ursae, and silently stared at her. Ruby pouted in frustration, and Yang chuckled at her little sister. "Aw, c'mon sis, that just means you kick butt." A mischievous grin bloomed on her face as she put an arm around Ruby. "After all, with that hood and that scythe you look like… A Grimm Reaper!"

Silence reigned throughout the clearing, the only sound being the wind that killed the entire atmosphere, and the absolute inability for anyone to speak.

"… No Yang. Just no." Ruby said flatly to her sister as the rest of the team groaned. Yang simply smirked at the reactions, making her little sister sigh. "Well, we might as well get some answers from Mr. Dead guy over there."

'_Okay… so how do I react to that?'_ Shinji thought as he watched the team interact. He heard the joke, and honestly a small part of him died on the inside when he heard it...

'_Well, more like died AGAIN…' _he thought to himself. He didn't dare say anything though. That was apparently that Death God's sister, so maybe they're ALL Shinigami! Slight disrespect and they might be leading him straight to hell!

The one who saved him suddenly turned towards him, and he put his head down again. "Look, you can stop doing that, you know?" he heard her say, almost frustratedly. Somewhat scared, he quickly stood up ramrod straight. "Right, take what I can get… Uhh… Why are you here?"

Shinji looked at her, confused. "Well… I died, and then I ended up here…"

"You aren't dead, you know?" another girl, one with black clothes, a bow and golden eyes that reminded him of a cat, told him bluntly. "Who are you and what are you doing here in Forever Fall without any weapons?"

"I'm Shinji Kido. I'm just a photographer for Open Resource Evolution…" he answered. He saw the confused looks on their faces and simply pushed on. "I have NO idea why I'm here… I just woke up here…"

"What was the last thing you remember?" The black one asked him, nodding in confirmation of his words.

"I was stabbed in the back by a monster." he answered, surprising the other girls. "I just kept fighting after that and my friend and I beat all of them, but it was too much for me. I expired, and here I am. That's why I think I'm dead."

"Why jump so quickly to the conclusion though?" one of them, the black one asked curiously.

"Because I'm all the way out here," he answered. "I was fighting in a big city, with the monsters attacking everything and causing a lot of damage. I'm suddenly all the way out here. I have no idea who would bring me here or why they would."

"Preposterous!" the one in white replied hotly. "Grimm haven't had that kind of major offensive in years! There must be some other explanation…"

"But I FELT it," he told her, and they were surprised by how sure he was. "I felt the pain of being stabbed in the back. I felt the pain of having to fight off practically a hundred more of those monsters… And no I'm not talking about those "Grimm" things. I felt the pain of having to waste all of my body's energy to kill as many of those things as possible. I felt the pain of my body going cold and numb, shutting down as I looked into my best friend's eyes for the last time. I felt the pain of wanting to thank him for everything he's done for me before I finally just _lost it._ I felt all of it, and _I remember it._"

The girls became silent after that, trying to digest his words. The Red and Yellow ones looked downcast at his words looking solemnly at the ground. The black stared at him silently, as though thinking about something he reminded her of. The white one though…

"Are you SURE it wasn't just a hallucination? Traumatic experiences could bring visions like that," she said dubiously.

"I'm SURE of it," he answered firmly. No way in hell was the war just a dream… just a nightmare that people could shrug off and be comforted by awakening the next day. It was real, horrifyingly real. And there was no way in HELL his last moments were fake either. He died protecting that little girl Rina, died wishing Ren onward and giving him his final answer. That couldn't be fake. It was impossible.

They suddenly heard more roars coming from within the forest, and the rest of the girls instantly tensed up. His saviour gripped her scythe tightly as she glanced towards each of her teammates. "Right… Weiss, Blake, Yang, I need you to hold the line for a little bit. I'm going to get Shinji out of here and be back as soon as I can. Got it?"

"Are you sure you want to bring me out? You could just leave me here and…"

"Nonsense," the white one, Weiss he heard, said to him firmly. "We cannot waste our energy protecting you if you stay here. And ignoring you would go against why we became Huntresses in the first place. We don't know how many there are, so we leave Ruby with you, the fastest of us."

Ruby turned to him, smiling reassuringly. "We'll be out of here in a jiffy, Shinji! Just wait at the train station, alright?"

Without any options, Shinji just nodded. "Right. I'm in your care…"

"Just be careful YOU don't get mobbed on the way out, alright?" the yellow one, apparently Yang, said. He could detect a slight bit of worry in her voice, and Shinji wondered if it was really alright.

Idly, he fingered around his pockets for his Deck. He grit his teeth when he didn't find it at all as they left the group, back into the red forest…

The trek back was far easier than he anticipated. This was thanks to the one guarding him, Ruby. Shinji was absolutely amazed at how swiftly she defeated all the monsters… Grimm apparently … that tried to fight them on the way back out of the forest. No bears again thankfully, but the wolves practically fell down for her. She wasn't even a Rider! It was just her, that giant scythe/sniper, and skill that he never saw or achieved in the entirety of the Rider War.

It made him feel awed… and a little inadequate of himself. He wondered how many he could have saved if he had even a fraction of her skill…

The sound of footsteps walking toward him and a shout alerted him to the object of his thoughts. "Hey Shinji, we can go now!"

"Thanks again," he said with a smile, and he was awed at how completely unharmed she was, and how many evaporating corpses there were. A little curious and very slightly afraid as well, though he didn't hold it against her. He was the guy that burned Mirror Monsters to death, wasn't he? "You're REALLY good at this! How did you get so strong?"

"I had a good teacher," she answered cheerfully. Tensing up again, she motioned for him to follow her. "Let's keep moving! I need to get back to my team as soon as possible."

"I know, I know… Sorry for holding you back…" he muttered self-piteously as he followed her. If only he had his Deck…

Ruby looked at him and smiled at him "Shinji. It's OK. My friends are the best. They're fine. I'm a huntress! I'm supposed to protect people, and I have no problem getting you out of here."

"That's what I thought I was supposed to do too…" Mumbled Shinji, and she looked confused at that. He shook his head. "Never mind…"

They continued on mostly in silence till the next clearing, at which point the easy part was officially over.

What they found in front of them was a huge two-headed snake, the bony heads staring straight at them with menacing red eyes.

"Oh what the hell is that thing?!" Shinji said in horror. He had enough of snakes dammit! Venosnaker made him sick of them for a lifetime!

"Get back Shinji! I have this!" Ruby ordered him, and he immediately hid behind the nearest tree as she said so. As he did, he saw her aim her scythe backwards and rocket towards that abomination for battle.

"So I have to lay low now…" he said to himself. He chuckled, wondering if this was what it was like for every person he saved. Every single person that he unceremoniously (and somewhat hilariously, he had to admit if it weren't for the situation) tackled while saving them probably felt like this, wondering what the hell was going on.

A dark part of him thought that none of them probably ever felt like they were supposed to be the ones fighting.

Assured that Shinji was alright, Ruby focused on the twin snakes in front of her: A King Taijitu. Ren told her about how he managed to kill one during the trials.

His advice? DON'T aim for the heads. Or rather, the foreheads. The top part had the bony covering the other Grimm used instead of a whole mask. She supposed that was fortunate, but it still removed a bigger fatal target unless she aimed for the eyes…

Which was why she immediately went to work slashing the back. Using the recoil from the scythe, she managed to end up just above the black half's body. She flipped in the air, delivering a wicked slash across its back.

As the black half hissed in pain, the white one dove for her. Fortunately, she aimed herself towards a tree with her shot and transformed Crescent Rose into its sniper form, allowing her to blast off again. She aimed for the black one again to dodge the attack, which had the upside of the snake lodging itself in the tree.

She saw the black one lunging for her again. She twisted her body, aimed towards the forest floor, and fired. The recoil blew her into the air, allowing her to close her eyes and take a deep breath as she aimed up.

Another huge blast came from her rifle, which made her rocket down yet again. Switching to scythe form, she aimed for the easiest weakness she could aim for: The one she made.

When Ruby landed on the snake, her scythe landed on the fresh wounds she created. The black half shrieked in agony as Ruby continuously fired shots into the hole in its back. Deciding to finish it off, she dug her scythe in deeper as the black half howled in suffering. Once she dug it as deep as she could, she stood on top of the cutting blade, and fired.

She rocketed across the snake's back. Having dug deep into the scales, Crescent Rose easily cut through the flesh beneath as Ruby pumped more shots out. The end result was a wide gash right across the black half's back, with Ruby zooming over its head and landing gracefully on the floor.

The gash was so deep, in ended up splitting the black snake in half. It slumped to the forest floor, dead to the world.

Well. And she didn't even have to aim for its head or use its teeth. That would've been gross…

"Ruby!"

All thoughts were lost to her when she suddenly heard a shout from her companion, and she whipped her head around to see Shinji surrounded by beowolves. "Shinji!"

But she couldn't go to help. The white snake dove straight towards her, and she blacked out for a moment from the powerful force.

"Oi, oi, oi, get away from me you overgrown stuffed dogs!" Shinji screamed as he tried his best to dodge their attacks. They were big, but fortunately he could dodge them easily since they weren't too agile. So in order not to distract Ruby, he tried his best and kept evading them.

But he had his limits. His jacket received a large cut as he narrowly dodged one, and now the damn things surrounded him!

No choice now. He had to call her if he wanted to live. "Ruby!"

He turned back to see her landing after finishing off one of the snakes. Hearing his shout, his companion turned to her and immediately made to help him, but to his horror he saw the white snake slam into her. She flew right past him and into a tree, and Shinji was frightened for her. "Oh god! RUBY!"

The small huntress groggily stood up and shook her head as she saw Shinji. Taking advantage of the distraction, he quickly rolled in her direction, dodging the beowolf claw aiming for him, and sprinted towards her in alarm.

"Hey, hey, hey! Ruby, are you alright?!" Shinji gasped as he got up. Ruby was having difficulty standing up, and she seemed dizzy as she faced him.

"Just run!" she ordered him as she gripped her scythe. "Hurry!"

"But-!"

"RUN!"

His eyes suddenly widened at those words.

He remembered when he directed them at somebody else: Protecting a little girl on the street, and getting stabbed in the back. Fighting on anyway, even if he knew he'd probably die if he did. Fighting his last battle together with Ren, and WINNING.

He would've survived if he hadn't gotten stabbed.

If these were normal circumstances, he would've reluctantly followed her orders and run away. If she hadn't been distracted protecting him, that stupid useless idiot that he was, she probably would've dealt with everyone here with ease and gone after him.

Ruby's thoughts brought him back to reality and he saw his surroundings: An entire pack of Beowolves and that white snake.

It was like a switch was flipped within his body. There was nothing rational with what he was about to do, but he didn't care.

He was NOT letting anybody die his death. Not somebody who gave their all protecting him, and especially not a little girl who doesn't deserve to die for a useless weakling like him!

Without warning, he suddenly dashed in front of her. Unable to move or react, she saw in horror that the white snake from before began charging at him.

"SHINJI!"

Shinji met the snake's charge head-on, thrusting his palms outward. He didn't know how or why he thought he could do this, but in the swirling torrent of emotion that was his mind, he didn't care.

Nobody was dying on his watch. NOBODY.

His hands suddenly glowed with orange light, startling Ruby as he _actually managed to hold the snake back with his bare hands._

"I'm NOT running!" He shouted towards her, and she was speechless at the emotion in his eyes. "There's no way in hell you're dying the way I did, and even less of a chance that you're dying for me!" His fury was as hot as the flames he once wielded, only making his hands glow even brighter. "If you say that you're supposed to protect people… The same goes for me! I failed too many and I am NOT adding you to that list!"

The snake completely stopped in its tracks. In that moment, Shinji screamed and pushed with all his might.

"Shinji…?" Ruby said softly, unable to say anything else in awe at the show of unbelievable strength. Her friend looked so different now. He wasn't the unsure, confused man that thought he was dead just a little while ago. Something about him _changed._

He felt like a warrior now.

"Ruby…" he said, not even turning to look at her. "Leave this to me. It's my turn to protect you now."

She nodded at him. As he trusted her with his life, she would do the same.

He nodded, and wordlessly turned towards the Grimm. "Whatever the hell you are… You aren't touching my friend."

Flames engulfed Shinji once again, burning as hot as the flames of his heart. "I swore to protect everyone I could, and I'll never stop! That's my desire as a human, and as a Rider!"

The flames finally overtook Shinji completely, and engulfed him in blinding light as he screamed. When he did, it wasn't the only sound that filled the forest.

A majestic roar, one that simply couldn't be human, echoed throughout the forest as Shinji was engulfed in bright light.

_In the heat of the moment, of his final battle and scrambling every last bit of strength to give Ren a final goodbye, and in the confusion of arriving in a new world, Shinji forgot that the death of a Rider meant that his Contract Monster was fated to run amok, becoming no different than any other of its kind._

_Yet… his didn't. Upon the death of his master, DragReder never left him. He never ran wild, he never tried to kill people or other monsters, he never moved from his spot, as if mourning him._

_There was a reason Shinji never found his deck. Even in this new world, The Unrivaled Dragon never truly left his master's side. _

_He became PART of him._

_In the back of his mind, Shinji saw him again, staring at him with the same eyes that measured him, gauging his worth as a master._

"_DragReder…"_

_Shinji simply nodded again, and the dragon acknowledged him once more._

_The Unrivaled Dragon swirled around its master, and granted him his power once again._

When the flames died down, what stood in front of Ruby wasn't just Shinji Kido anymore.

What stood in front of her was a legend of the Rider War, the contractor of the Unrivaled Dragon DragReder:

"Let me show you the strength of that desire…" He said as he slowly took out a card from the belt on his waist.

"My strength… As Kamen Rider Ryuki."

"**Advent"**

He slotted the card into his Drag-Visor, and the words that followed announced the majestic roar that covered the entire forest.

Back at Shinji's resting place, as the other members of team RWBY finished their fight, they heard the sound of a creature they'd never heard before.

Yang finished off the an ursa by punching it in its neck before Ember Celica fired a shotgun shell, then snapped her head towards the noise. "Well… Never heard of that one before…"

"What kind of creature was that?" Weiss wondered as she defeated the boarbatusk in front of her by lifting it into the air with Myrternaster's fire and stabbing its exposed underside.

"The kind that we really wouldn't want staring at us like a three-course meal," Blake answered as she spun Gambol Shroud around her, tearing through the beowolves surrounding her. She narrowed her eyes as she noticed the direction it was from. "That sound…"

"Oh god, it came from Ruby's!" Yang said in alarm as she finished off the last of the ursae. "I mean, I wouldn't be too worried, but she's protecting someone now!"

"Urgh… Dammit Ruby, you make it a point to make our lives harder, don't you?" Weiss grumbled in worry.

"Whatever. Our team leader's in trouble with a civilian. We're moving NOW." Blake said as the team dashed off, praying that their leader would be safe.

Ruby was struck speechless, the pain in her arm forgotten, as a giant mechanical dragon suddenly surrounded her friend. Wordlessly, he took out a card and slotted it into the strange device on his arm.

"Reder… Let's do this."

"**Sword Vent."**

The moment Shinji slotted the card, a gleaming saber appeared in his hand. As one, Rider and Beast surged forward, charging into battle.

"AHHHH!"

The dragon immediately went for the white snake and began a clash of titans. Ruby, however, focused more on Shinji: When he got close to the pack he jumped in and swung at the first Beowulf that he could reach. Unbelievably, he killed it in one hit. He then followed that up with a kick to the one at his side to push it away, then a fatal slash to the one behind him.

He was unstoppable. The wolves never even got _close_ to touching him as his flurry of punches, slashes and kicks didn't allow any of them to get close to him.

Ruby was mesmerized. This was the man she was protecting mere _seconds_ ago?

"Reder!" He shouted to his dragon, and the dragon broke off from his pitifully advantageous clash to aid his master. The snake, once a pristine white, was now covered in countless scratches and burns.

Shinji backflipped away and landed with all the wolves in front of him. He took out another card from his deck and slotted it in once again.

"**Strike Vent."**

A gauntlet appeared in his arm, and all the creatures made to charge at him, both the snake and the wolves. He simply reeled back his fist, and fire from his dragon gathered inside.

"HAAAAH!"

With a mighty cry, he thrust it forward, a gigantic stream of flame coming out from within, engulfing all the wolves in fire and blasting the snake in the face.

Ruby was struck speechless. He had something this powerful hidden within him all this time…?

As the snake shrieked in agony, the wolves all turned to useless ash. Shinji, looked at the sight in front of him, and moved to finish.

"Yosh… The finisher!"

Shinji took out one last card from his deck, and put it inside.

"**Final Vent."**

DragReder then coiled around Shinji, and he thrust his hands out. He then squared his legs and put his hands at his side, his movements copying the beast empowering him.

The snake made one last attempt at finishing him off and lunged at him one last time. But it was too late.

Shinji jumped into the air and somersaulted. The momentum built up from the motion, and as he flipped his body he pointed one leg towards the white snake. In that moment, DragReder breathed a jet of fire onto Shinji, blasting him towards the enemy.

There was no contest. The snake couldn't even open its mouth before Shinji's flying kick slammed into his forehead. The thing actually _stopped_ in its tracks and recoiled at the force. Suddenly, its entire body became engulfed in flame and it exploded, ending its life.

Shinji landed gracefully on the forest floor as the ash dissipated, and nothing was heard in the forest except the crackling of the flames.

Ruby could only marvel at the battle before her and the strength of the man who protected her, the man whom she couldn't believe she had to protect.

"Oh my god, what the hell is happening there?!" Yang said as she rushed towards her sister. She'd been hearing those horrifying sounds, roars and explosions for a while now, and now she was very afraid for her sister's life.

Blake immediately sped up towards her teammate and ran right beside her. "Yang, don't get too reckless. Ruby can take of herself. She'll be fine when we get there."

"I'm more worried about that Shinji person… Let's hope he didn't get hurt due to whatever happened," Weiss pointed out.

When they did arrive though, the sounds had already stopped. The battle had already finished.

They saw Ruby clutching her arm painfully as she tried to stand up and walk. When they saw where she was facing, they couldn't speak.

An armored man with a mechanical dragon stared at a clearing filled with fire. The dismembered corpse of a King Taijitu was in the flames, the body being cooked to the ashes surrounding it.

"What… is this?" Weiss asked softly, taking in the unbelievable sight in front of her and unable to comprehend it.

They saw the man turn his head slowly to stare at them as his dragon disappeared. Without really acknowledging them, he turned to Ruby. Seeing her walk painfully towards him, but otherwise remain mostly unhurt, he nodded in acknowledgement and fell forward into unconsciousness.

"SHINJI!"

Those words only provided more questions than answers for the rest of the girls, who jogged towards their leader to help.


End file.
